NASCAR MON­STER EN­ERGY SE­RIES: WHAT TO WATCH

Clint Bowyer, who will start 16th, has a chance to get closer to the Big 3 of Kyle Busch, Kevin Har­vick and Mar­tin Truex Jr., who have com­bined to win 16 of 22 races, and cre­ate more sep­a­ra­tion from the pack. He won his sec­ond race at the se­ries’ pre­vi­ous stop at Michi­gan In­ter­na­tional Speed­way in June. Four other driv­ers have won one race this year. “It is al­ways ex­cit­ing to go to any race track for the sec­ond time, es­pe­cially when you have had some suc­cess to see how you will stack up when you load again,” Bowyer said.

STREAK­ING

Denny Ham­lin hopes to fin­ish where he’ll start — first — to earn a vic­tory for a 13th straight year. He is on the pole for a sec­ond straight week. “We’re start­ing to turn back the other way and be pretty fast again,” Ham­lin said. “We’ve re­ally worked on the right things to get us to this point and noth­ing is more frus­trat­ing than work­ing as hard as I have and the team has over the last two months and not get­ting any re­sults.” Ham­lin won at Michi­gan in 2010 and 2011.

CHASE’S CHANCE

Chase El­liott won his first Cup race last week, in his 99th start, to put him in the play­offs. “I’ve been on the other end of the stick these past two years and it’s such a nice feel­ing to come into these last few races and know that you’re locked-in to the deal,” he said. El­liott has had three runner-up fin­ishes at MIS.

FA FRENZY

Many driv­ers have been men­tioned as pos­si­ble free agents af­ter the sea­son. Chip Ganassi in­sisted he wants Jamie McMur­ray back on his team next year af­ter Mo­tor­sport.com re­ported he would be re­placed by Kurt Busch. Does New­man have a deal for 2019? “Work­ing on it,” he said.